European Projects

Spread the Sign:-Doncaster Deaf Trust Deaf has been involved with other European partners since 2006 in Spread the Sign, which is an international web based translation tool for sign language. The tool provides the possibility to directly translate words and sentences into sign language and is shown as video clips. These words can be shown in more than 20 different sign languages and access is immediate.

The home pagewww.spreadthesign.comfacilitates and is helpful for contacts between deaf and hearing people and for users of different sign languages in the world. The website has 200,000 visitors per month and nearly 100,000 downloads of the app ‘Spread Sign’ that is iOS and Android. Today there are over 300,000 signs, the translation tool is free to use.

This project funding has finished but the partners involved will continue to update and improve the site.

Doncaster Deaf Trust is now involved in three further European projects funded through Erasmus +. These are listed below:-

Spread Share- A new project Spread Share continues the work of Spread the Sign in that it will further develop the Google Map feature to include signed videos of European cities, towns, national landmarks and places of historical interest. Another outcome of this project will be a sharing platform for free educational materials at national and international levels for the education of the Deaf.

Give me a Sign– This project aims to create a sign language programme (A1/A2) in Portuguese, Turkish, English and Austrian. Each programme will last approximately 30 hours and will allow say, an English BSL user to learn one of the other sign languages listed above. The aim will also be to convert these into e-Learning courses

Deaf Learning– This project aims to create a national written language programme in English, Polish, Austrian, Lithuanian and Italian at levels A1 to B1 for deaf learners to help improve their literacy skills. Once a handbook and materials have been created they will be further developed as eLearning materials.

Tour Guides-This project aims to provide a Tour Guide certificated course for deaf and hearing impaired in Turkey. It is hoped to create a new employment area for hearing impaired people and will give importance to sign language in a new vocational education area. It will help create a workforce that can adapt to evolving technology. The project will give deaf learners intercultural recognition.